Ceramic factories in Morbi asked to shut down for workers to attend Modi’s rally?

On the day of PM Modi’s election campaign in Morbi, a twitter handle named @TheAgeOfBananas revealed in a series of tweets that the BJP is forcing industries to shut down their production and each factory is being asked to send at least 25 workers to attend the rally. Following this the handle wrote, “It is ironical that PM Modi flew down from Hyderabad after attending Global Entrepreneurship Summit with US President’s aide Ivanka Trump straight to election campaign shutting down entrepreneurs.”

The handle also posted a picture of a WhatsApp message in a group consisting of factory owners which is in Gujrati:

The letter reads :

Dear industrialists,

You may be struggling for time at present, but this event is important. We expect at least 25 people from each factory to come shutting down packing and loading for half day. You can resume production later in the afternoon. Modi saheb is coming to Morbi for the first time after becoming Prime Minister and we want to make his rally a grand success. We want you to remain present in the morning from 8:00 to 11:30. Register your factory name and number of people on the following phone number.

Thanks.

PM Modi’s rallies in Gujarat have not been big crowd pullers so far due to the Patidar agitation and Rahul Gandhi’s successful election campaign. Various responses on Twitter vouch for that. It seems, the BJP organisers in Gujarat are worried and want to draw crowds by any means, fair or foul.

The twitter handle further criticised the BJP by saying, “It is astonishing to learn about total disregard for private sector’s productivity and business merely for an election rally.”

Morbi in Gujarat is the third-largest manufacturing hub for ceramics in the world after China and Italy, and accounts for 90 per cent of the total ceramic production in the country. Ceramic items have a GST of 28 per cent which caused a huge hike in price of the items, resulting in heavy losses for the ceramic industry. The ceramic industrialists have been requesting the government to cut down the tax rate from 28 per cent to 12 per cent.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Modi in Morbi spoke about reduction of GST on ceramic goods and criticised former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi for covering her nose due to foul smell when she visited Morbi. He said the BJP should be credited with the development of Morbi and not the Congress. Among other things, he mentioned Pradhan Mantri Kisan Sampada Yojana and SAUNI Yojana undertaken by his government for the development of the region.

The BJP claimed that there was a huge crowd to listen to PM Modi at the rally in Morbi. But was this crowd fuelled by ceramic factory workers?